2017-2018 Wichita Tribal Princess

Makennah McAdams

2017-2018 Wichita Tribal
Princess

(Updated from the original
article published in the August 2017 edition of Wichita Tribal
News)

Makennah Rae McAdams, the 17-year-old
daughter of Cassandra McAdams and Charles Chalepah, is the
2017-2018 Wichita Tribal Princess. She is the granddaughter of Gary
and the late Ardina McAdams and Carolyn Chalepah; the
great-granddaughter of Louie and Elva Mae Miller McAdams; and the
great-great granddaughter of Moses and Minnie Caley.
McAdams was crowned on Thursday August 10, 2017, on the first
night of the Wichita Annual Dance.

Makennah served as the
2016-2017 Wichita Little Sisters Princess. She is actively involved
in the Wichita-Pawnee Visitation, the oldest traditional ceremony
the tribe continues. She also takes part in the Young Dog Dance and
the Kitkehaki Dance.

In addition, Makennah takes
part in numerous cultural activities including our hand games,
traditional women's game of Double Ball, and dances. She has
attended the Oklahoma Native American Youth Language Fair in
Norman, Oklahoma, since she was five years old. Makennah has placed
several times at ONAYLF, performing with the Wichita Little
Sisters. This year, Makennah was interviewed in a video to
commemorate the language fair's 15th anniversary.

She has also attended
several cultural classes that include bead work, basket weaving,
language classes, song classes, learning the Wichita
Hymns/Lullabies, and pottery class.

Makennah was a 2016 intern
for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. As an intern, she visited
several Wichita Village sites and took part in an archeological dig
where she discovered a piece of pottery at the Deer Creek Site near
Newkirk, Oklahoma. She attended a pedestrian survey in Arkansas
City, Kansas. and an archaeology workshop provided by the Wichita
Cultural Education Program.

She is a Senior at
Anadarko High School and looks forward to all possibilities her
future holds.

Makennah comes from a long
list of women in her family (mother, aunts, sister and numerous
cousins) who have also held the title of Wichita Tribal Princess.
Her family has a German Silver crown specially made for all the
women in her family who become Wichita Princess. It is a great
honor for her to wear this crown and an even greater honor to
represent her family, herself and our people as the Wichita Tribal
Princess.